Dictionary

hold the ring en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈhəʊld ðə ˌɹɪŋ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Australia) audio
• /ˈhɔʊld ðə ˌɹɪŋ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈhoʊld ðə ˌɹɪŋ/ (General-American)

Etymology

Probably from keep the ring. In days past when spectators would encircle participants in a prizefight or a performance, people would be employed to maintain order among them and keep them from coming too near the participants.

Meanings

1. (obsolete) To maintain order among spectators encircling participants in a prizefight or a performance and keep them from coming too near the participants.
2. To be a spectator at a fight; (figuratively) to watch other people argue.
3. (UK, idiomatic) To oversee a situation while attempting to remain uninvolved in it.
   • Lieutenant-General Fry says that coalition forces will continue military operations "to separate the two sides of the sectarian conflict" but that such operations were meant to hold the ring until the politicians come up with a solution. 2006 August 31, “Holding the ring in the capital: Embedded with American troops in a volatile district, our correspondent asks how long they can prevent an all-out sectarian war”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2016:
   • In England a century earlier it had been a struggle between two warring houses, in France it was now a struggle between three: Guise, Montmorency and Bourbon, with the feeble government of Catherine de Medici vainly trying to hold the ring. 1968, J. Hurstfield, “Social Structure, Office-holding and Politics, Chiefly in Western Europe”, in R[ichard] B[ruce] Wernham, editor, The New Cambridge Modern History, volumes III (The Counter-Reformation and Price Revolution 1559–1610), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 132:
   • While this debate was going on in Nature another was being conduct in Archaeometry. This was between Betancourt – and his old colleague Michael – and Warren, with the English archaeometrist M. J. Aitken holding the ring. 1991, Martin [Gardiner] Bernal, “The Thera Eruption: From the Aegean to China”, in Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, volumes II (The Archaeological and Documentary Evidence), New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 288:
   • Police held the ring during the protests.
   • It is the great powers that create international upheavals. In 1912–13 the Balkan powers fought two bitter wars among themselves, while the great powers held the ring. 2002, Martin Wight, “International Anarchy”, in Hedley Bull, Carsten Holbraad, editors, Power Politics, →ISBN, page 100:
4. Of a prizefighter: to hold one's own during a fight; to continue winning a series of fights.

Forms

Synonyms

keep the ring

wikipedia: Imperial War Museum · wikipedia: Royal Navy